Coaching apps are not only making headlines in The Wall Street Journal, they are marketing their ability to create an efficient, time effective coaching process. Can you do the same?
My goal in this series of posts was to provide some tips and tools on how you can leverage Coachmetrix to keep up with the growing trends of mobile apps in the coaching industry.
An April 16, 2019, article in the Wall Street Journal is demonstrating that mobile apps are becoming more mainstream in coaching. The future is here.
In my first post, we explored how to differentiate your business by measuring the results on your coaching engagements. After all, executives buy results, not coaching.
In the second post, we discussed how to add more value by leveraging your own content, thought leadership and perspective.
Today’s post is about how to optimize your coaching process with Coachmetrix so that clients experience a streamlined approach to communication throughout the engagement.
Is the Coaching Conversation Going Away?
There are some futurists who believe that the coaching conversation could go away. The increased capacity of computing power and advances in artificial intelligence might make that a reality.
I think this shift is possible at manager level coaching, where much of the need is more related to developing skills. But at the senior and executive levels, I don’t think the coaching conversation is going anywhere. There’s something in the human connection and the coaching conversation that can’t be replicated by machine learning, especially when the coaching is related to behaviors and impact.
How Coaches Add to the Overwhelm
However, I do think we often inadvertently frustrate our clients with inefficiencies in the coaching process in general. We do things like emailing clients Word documents to complete prior to a coaching session: they have to download the document, complete it, save it to their local hard drive, attach it to an email, and then send l it back to their coach. We unnecessarily confuse clients by storing tools, documents and resources in multiple locations that request multiple passwords and user IDs .
Our clients are all busy people and have enough on their mind. The coaching process should decrease, not add to, the overwhelm.
Optimize Communication in Coaching
Here are some ways to create efficiencies in your coaching process AND position your coaching process as more than just the one-on-one coaching conversation so that you can add more value.
Use the Discussions Feature for Pre and Post Messaging
The Discussions feature is a great way to interact with your client at any point in your engagement. It is especially helpful when sending pre-coaching session reflection questions and post-coaching session notes because the client can see an accurate and elegant history of the engagement all on one page.
To make it even more efficient, you can create a reusable template that will pre-populate your email body every time you select it. You can even use the Scheduling feature to send your messages at a later date.
Best of all, when a client responds to a discussion, it connects with the discussion message inside of Coachmetrix, making it easier for you and the client to prepare for your coaching sessions.
No more emailing Word documents back and forth to each other.
Use the Templates Feature to Create Nurturing Messages
Another way to add value on your coaching engagements is to create a series of nurturing emails using the Templates feature that are scheduled for a future date. This will allow you to check in with your client and add additional value while you sleep!
Imagine a six-month coaching engagement and an email that you send once per month throughout the engagement. You can automate the entire process inside of Coachmetrix and reuse the templates across all of your projects.
Schedule Messages to Keep Supporters Engaged
Many Coachmetrix users don’t know that there is a messaging system designed to communicate directly with Supporters as well. Both the participant and coach have access to the system. So, you could create and schedule messages in advance to a participant’s supporters, letting them know that the participant values their feedback and feedforward and keeping them engaged in the process.
Add Assignments to Create Clarity
In January 2019, we launched the Assignments feature to help your clients have consistent clarity about their fieldwork. The Assignments feature allows the coach to create project milestones and assignments within each milestone and share those with your client. The coach can also add due dates and the client can check the assignments off as they are completed.
Even better – you can use existing assignments and milestones across all of your projects.
Where to Go from Here
Remember, your mobile app competitors are coming to the market with powerful messaging about the efficiencies they add to the coaching process. With just a few updates on your end, you can do the same.
For the ultimate in optimization, you can create repeatable processes that work across all of your coaching engagements.
Thank you for being part of the Coachmetrix community—we are in this together. Keep in mind, Coachmetrix was built by coaches, for coaches. We’d love your feedback and input on how we can improve the platform to not only compete in a changing industry, but also, more importantly, to make a bigger difference and impact in our world.
If you are interested in digging deeper into how you can leverage Coachmetrix to compete in a tech-savvy world, you can access a recording of my masterclass Expand Your Coaching Business: Add More Value and Compete with Mobile Apps that will Disrupt the Market.
